literacy – Page 8 – Language on the Move

Language at work

Money talks

Those of us in the broad area of TESOL often labor under the assumption of the invincibility of English hegemony. Whether they deplore it or exult in it, many people…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 17, 2012

Language in education

Turkish alphabetisation for German integration

KOALA Buchstabenhaus (Adapted from: Urbanek, R. et al. (2006): Tinto grün. Arbeitsheft 1. Schreiben. Berlin: Cornelsen) Contemporary Germany is the 3rd largest immigrant-receiving country internationally. In 2008, 15.6mio inhabitants (19%…

Victoria BenzSeptember 13, 2011

Language and globalization

Does internationalization change research content?

Source: Kang 2009, p. 201 Every linguistics undergraduate student is by now familiar with the fact of linguistic imperialism in academic publishing where the pressure to publish in international journals…

Ingrid PillerAugust 26, 2011

English as a global language

Free language choice?

Pretty much everyone I know wants to learn English or improve their English – with the exception of those who consider themselves native speakers, obviously. What is more, everyone I…

Ingrid PillerAugust 16, 2011

Language learning

Tyranny of Poverty

Pakistan Swat Valley 2009 Ingrid briefly mentioned Zubeida Mustafa’s new book Tyranny of Language in Education: The Problem and its solution recently. Since then, we’ve had numerous enquiries about the…

Muhammad Ali KhanJuly 1, 2011

Intercultural communication

Desire to know more

Intercultural Communication by Ingrid Piller I recently moved to Bangkok to take up a position as Lecturer at the Graduate School of English (GSE) at Assumption University of Thailand. Established…

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江June 14, 2011

Language learning

Mother Language Day in East Timor

Mother Language Day in East Timor International Mother Language Day is celebrated annually to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. In East Timor, Mother Language Day 2011 provided the perfect opportunity…

Kerry Taylor-LeechApril 13, 2011

Language learning

National Languages Curriculum

My daughter attends a public elementary school in NSW where the children are taught French for one hour each week. In 2009, she was away from her school for one…

Ingrid PillerMarch 4, 2011

Language in education

Long-term English language learners

When I first started teaching in Australia, I had a Korean-Australian student in one of my undergraduate classes who sounded like most of the other students in my class, like…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 18, 2011

Next Gen Literacies

When illiteracy is a privilege

Thai alphabet Learning Thai has its many challenges but one of the great joys for me has been encountering the Thai script. At the start I felt like a five-year-old-child,…

Sheila PhamFebruary 11, 2011

Next Gen Literacies

Multiculturalism alive and well in Austria

I love public libraries. Here in Sydney, our family regularly spends time in our local public library and in the Persian library in Parramatta. We treat public libraries a bit…

Ingrid PillerNovember 24, 2010

Language learning

German is so funny. Not.

Earlier this term I intercepted a note my 7-year-old had written to her teacher: “Ger Ger Ger; Don’t be so rude.” She was objecting to a reading comprehension exercise about…

Ingrid PillerNovember 6, 2010

Multilingual histories

Providing bilingual education since 1689

Commemorative stamp, German Federal Post, 1989: 300 years French School Berlin I’ve been teaching about bilingualism for more than a decade and when I speak about bilingual education and dual-immersion…

Ingrid PillerOctober 26, 2010

Language in education

Refugee children left behind as eagle lands on the moon

Yesterday, the New York Times carried a heart-breaking story about an exceptional school principal forced from her position under No-Child-Left-Behind legislation in order for the school district to obtain federal…

Ingrid PillerJuly 21, 2010

Language and globalization

Academic capitalism and the spread of English

In 2009, I contributed a chapter about the social inclusion of migrants in Australia to an edited book about immigration policy published in Japanese in Japan. The book is doing…

Ingrid PillerJuly 11, 2010

Linguistic landscapes

The f-word on the move

Installment #7 in the mini-series on multilingual signage When I lived in Basel in Switzerland, my then-preschool child was just learning to make sense of the alphabet and to sound…

Ingrid PillerMay 22, 2010